Iona Jones
Chief Executive, S4C

Iona Jones came to visit us today. She talked to us about her 5 year Programme Strategy for S4C, particularly in relation to the use of interactive media.

She was pleased with the recent launch of Dudley on Broadband (www.s4c.co.uk/dudley) and the new Bandit website (www.bandit247.com), but also seemed keen to expand on websites like these to attract wider audiences for S4C programmes.

Iona was enthusiastic about the possibilities of exploring new methods of communicating with audiences, and said that hopefully more and more new programmes on S4C would be developed to exploit new media technologies from the outset, rather than being an afterthought 'add-on'. She also mentioned Node, a location based media company based in Usk that she had recently met with. They have developed an interesting piece of hardware that enables people to watch different video content on a handheld LCD screen dependent on their GPS position. Iona seemed interested in exploring how similar equipment and technology could be used to enhance/supplement S4C programmes.

I was very grateful of the opportunity to talk to Iona Jones in such an informal atmosphere and pleased by her enthusiasm to explore new media technologies. She seemed especially keen to try to experiment with new media in innovative ways, so hopefully S4C will surprise us with their use of new technology over the next few years.